Even if the World Forgot
by Lightning-Dono
Summary: Kasumi has always struggled with trying to tell Satoshi something...A one-shot about how hard she has been trying and what she thinks of him.


**Lightning-Dono**: Mmmnnnhhh...Something I came up with. One-shot.

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She watched him everyday, talked to him everyday. Why is it that she could never summon up that dormant courage within herself to tell him just a few words? She wished those words were just like any other, random pigments of the language that could be used for anything. Except, to her, they seemed so hard to force from her mouth.

Kasumi laughed at every possible word he said, never failing to enjoy her time with him. Just she and Satoshi together, alone, made her want to drool dramatically like a rabid monkey. The problem was that she didn't want to just _be_ with him, the lusted for much more. Not to much that it would make Satoshi dance on one foot along the line of insanity – just enough that he would notice her more and know that it was all more than friendship.

He never drove over the edge as to annoy her, but sometimes he would turn something particularly thought provoking into a moment of selfish humor. Kasumi would often stop to think about something, and _wham!_ came the horrifically loud boom of laughter from Takeshi and her only love. At those times, she wished for nothing more than to lug a huge mace over and swing it into his ignorant face.

But yet, the emotion never faded from her chest, making it tighten whenever he got close and release when he stepped away. How could she explain such an awful feeling to him? They were young – not even in their late teen years yet, and already her mind was getting the better of her. She would often stray off the path, often brushing against him as she did so, hearing him say, "Where exactly do you think you're going?" And pull her back in next to him. Kasumi did it to feel the warmth of his gloved hand soak into her shoulder, then she used the profoundly old excuse that she had balance issues and walk straight if her life depended on it. The gullible preteen would buy it every time, assuring her that all was fine and if she did ever end up lost in the woods somehow because of this, he would drag her back. That's how much he loved her – not escort her back, but _drag_. Kasumi was like a hard-boiled egg inside a cracked shell. No matter how much she was broken up, she would never spill. Often she would blame Satoshi of being a faulty, stubborn little boy when it was her insecurity that drove her to do so, the insecurity that she was actually faulty and stubborn. Not necessarily a little boy, however. She was all too proud of her feminine ways to go and play pretend as the opposite gender.

At night, crawling into her sleeping bag, she often shifted her gaze at the snoring monstrosities that slept close to her. Except, they were better friends than any she could ever have, considering how many times they had saved her behind from being kicked into a misshapen patty cake. She owed them so much, yet they insisted that she didn't even need to give them half a penny, and that that's what friends were for.

So, did that mean that she wasn't a good friend? Kasumi, personally, only remembered ever helping Satoshi, but memories of Takeshi slipped through. He was just another simple aspect of her small world and nothing more. Surely Satoshi wouldn't enjoy being around her had he heard her point of view.

But soon after, before their journeys were even close to ending, fate set up large boulders on her side of the road and let the other two pass. Kasumi's sisters had heartlessly decided to take off on a trip and left the gym in her care. As she received this message, the tidal wave of tears had swept by her eyes. Blinking rapidly at the ceiling to relieve herself of this, she watched as Takeshi leaned over and spilled his comments all over the screen of the videophone. Then, after much contemplation, fate decided to spill a bucket of pebbles, water, and Plaster of Paris into the cracks of said boulders, still not allowing her any escape.

Nurse Joy returned her bike. They had fixed it for her, shipped it to where she was, and now they were forcing her only fake reason to stay with Satoshi into her arms.

"That's great, Kasumi! Now you can go home and take care of the gym!"

Her heart broke into a million pieces, give or take a few fragments. After all they had been through, how could he say something nearly as insensitive? It was like saying, "Hmmm...I don't like my dog very much anymore. I think I'll abandon it and get a new one." Kasumi had never assumed that her best friend was so heartless, but now she thought she knew the entire truth.

"A jerk doesn't deserve your heart," Akane (A/N: One of her sisters.) used to say to her after she had come home teary-eyed after she had found her childhood crush holding another girl's hand. Now was the exact same thing repeating over again. Marube she was just a cursed little Barbie doll who would skip from man to man without any promise of romance.

She was attacked. After crying her eyes out and walking down the street, three guys had decidedly jumped her, snarling at her opalescent eyes that had instantly dimmed down to the color of a dark blue moon.

Satoshi and Takeshi had saved her. They returned with a vengeance just for her, thrashing the men until they fell to the ground, flailing their arms and legs.

After leaving Satoshi alone (as Takeshi also left to care for his gym, only to return later on) to walk the endless road, she had paid him a few visits, just to see his face once more. Her dear old friends that she would never forget, even if the world forgot them.

Kasumi had gained an unimaginable amount of common sense in the days that she had left the duo and began her official gym training. She left romance up to itself, and whomever Cupid chose for her, she would be forced to take.

Until then, she could only hope that the arrow would land on the boy who she had dreamt of for so long, whether or not she was with him.

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OMG, it's the return of the crappy endings! xD;


End file.
